Michigan

HighPoint Flats renovations have begun, ending 10-year wait

MUSKEGON, MI - Construction on the downtown HighPoint Flats high rise has officially begun, an announcement Muskegon has been waiting nearly a decade to hear.

"The stars have aligned for HighPoint Flats," said developer Jon Rooks.

Rooks' Parkland Muskegon LLC is turning the eight-story historic bank building into 47 market-rate apartments and three floors of commercial space. Exterior renovations will be completed by the end of this year, and the residential units completed by mid-2018, Rooks said.

Visser Construction has set up an on-site office and a job superintendent is there every work day, Rooks said. Portable toilets have even been set up - a sure sign that workers are on-site.

"Full crews are in the building right now," Rooks said on Wednesday.

Rooks announced in 2007 his plans to construct condominiums in the old Comerica building located at the corner of West Western Avenue and First Street.

But then the recession hit. Rooks became involved in other projects, including the Terrace Point Landing housing development and the Holiday and Shoreline inns, and in 2008 he began looking around for someone to buy the building, Rooks said.

But no other developers "would touch" the project, he said.

"If I didn't do it, I felt like nobody would do it," Rooks said.

For the past year, he's been working to get state and local incentives to make the project affordable to complete, and to get architectural plans approved by the city, he said.

The total cost of the renovations is expected to be around $7 million.

The apartments will be on the building's third through eighth floors. Commercial space will be developed on the lower, first and second floors, though it will not be completed until tenants are identified, Rooks said.

Work on the exterior and interior will be done simultaneously to meet construction deadlines outlined in an agreement with the city for a tax break. In all, there are 32 subcontractors working the project, Rooks said.

The city agreement requires the apartments be completed and commercial areas roughed in by Aug. 30, 2018, and the exterior renovations to be done by Nov. 1, 2017. If exterior renovations are done on time, Rooks gets an additional two months to complete the interior, under the city agreement.

The agreement allows Rooks to benefit from the Renaissance Zone in which the building is located. That allows for most property taxes to be waived and for tenants to avoid having to pay state and local income taxes - a selling point to get residents to move in.

The Renaissance Zone is in effect until 2023. After that, a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone certificate kicks in for another six years. The NEZ reduces property taxes on residential units only.

The highly visible building in downtown Muskegon originally was built as the Hackley Union Bank by Charles H. Hackley in 1916.